The Founder of the Blue Communities program was the guest of honour this weekend as Bayfield celebrated its membership in the program, and recognized water as a human right.
Maude Barlow congratulated the co-chairs of the Bayfield Blue Community group for being the first that wasn't an initiative of the municipal government but was a grass roots effort.
She called it a statement by the people of the Bayfield Community.
Barlow points to the small plastic particles in Great Lakes waters as one serious problem but she's particularly concerned about the potential for energy companies to use the Great Lakes as a carbon corridor.
She says energy companies want to ship raw material as well as waste around the Great Lakes by rail, tunnel under the Great Lakes and ship by vessel or barges on the Great Lakes, and she points out the Great Lakes are not invincible and if we don't look after them we will lose them.
Barlow adds another serious concern is the concentration of nutrients in Lake Huron from large industrial farms. She says if we don't introduce laws to restrict that run-off of nutrients, Lake Huron could become another Lake Winnipeg where the lake is totally covered with algae some summers.
